


patron

by exarite



Series: MultiSakuMonth [4]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Old Gods
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-15
Updated: 2018-08-15
Packaged: 2019-06-27 18:09:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15690648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/exarite/pseuds/exarite
Summary: Sakura is the Nara clan’s patron spirit.Nara Shikamaru is 19, and finally ready to accept his place as Clan Head.





	patron

**Author's Note:**

> uhhhhh super late post for MultiSakuMonth lmao. I posted it on tumblr and completely forgot to post it here HAHA

He has known her his whole life.

The day he was born, as per tradition, his parents brought him to the edge of the Nara Forest. They knelt down and offered him up to the deer and the forest spirits that lived inside.

She had come then, dressed in the greens and browns of the Nara, her pink hair stark against the muted colors, and she had smiled. She didn’t always appear when Nara came and offered up their children once they were born or once they reached of age, but for the future clan heir, it was just as much tradition for her as it was for them.

She had leaned down to his parents kneeling prostate and reached out for him. They let her carry him in her arms, trusting their patron to do no harm and to only have goodwill. She took care of them. She was the one who had taught them the art of medicine, had protected from outsiders and kept the forest thriving.  She was the light their shadows thrived from. Why would they worry about her holding him in her arms, when she held the whole clan in her hands? 

She shared a smile with his father and then took his son from him into the forest, into the shadows, the deer trailing behind her.

No one quite knew what she did with the Nara babies, no one remembered it after all, even with their extraordinary memory and intelligence. All his mother and father could do was kneel at the edge of her forest and wait for her to return, hours later, to the triumphant pride of his clan. And once she returned with him in her arms, his parents simple took him back from her until he came of age. 

At 10, his father determined him old enough. It was a ceremony once more because he was still the clan head’s son, the heir of the Nara clan, and every occasion was worth a celebration even if he outwardly complained about the trouble. At 10, he waited at the edge of the forest alone and clothed only in the simplest of their tunics.

Sometimes, she didn’t come, and let the Nara child fend for himself, all the more stronger for it, even as she watched in the shadows and through the eyes of the deer. Sometimes, it was the deer that came and wrapped their bodies around the Nara child, kept him warm through the nights and kept him company for the days that they stayed in the forest.

For Shikamaru, she came.

For 7 days and 7 nights, Shikamaru stayed with her.  For 7 nights, he slept in the embrace of the darkest shadows until they knew him as one of their own, and until he knew it as a part of him. And always, always, she stayed by his side, gentle and patient as he adjusted and learned his own shadow.

He has been learning their clan jutsus for awhile now, and he knew the theory of it inside and out, but it was nothing like giving in and letting the shadows wrap around you, to trust in it, to control it fully.

He entered the forest a child, and came out not as a man, no, but one step closer. 

At 17, his father died in the War. There was nothing official yet, and Shikamaru didn’t spare any more than a passing thought for it, but he was very much aware that he was the Nara Clan Head now as soon as they went through the ceremony. He didn’t dwell on it. There were plans to make and things to fight and after… After the War was over, he planned to deal with it.

At 19, his mom finally handed the reigns to the Nara Clan over to him. She had run it for a year after the war, Shikamaru shadowing her (pun intended) to learn the ins and outs of how to manage a Clan by himself. He had thought that he knew what to do after having seen his father do it for the better part of his life, but the reality of watching over a hundred of his clansmen, both civilian and shinobi, was much more complex.

And now, she had finally determined him ready.

His kin had come to escort him to the edge of the forest once more. It has been almost a decade since he has last spent a night in its heart but Shikamaru still knew it as well as the back of his hand. And he knew what–or who, was waiting for him inside of it.

Shikamaru took in a deep breath, uncharacteristically nervous. With his clan beside him, he knelt down at the very lip and then pressed his forehead into the dirt. Waiting.

If she accepted him as the Nara Clan Head, she would come.

Seconds, minutes, he didn’t know how much time had passed, his senses in tune with what was around him. He could feel the chakra signatures of his clan, could hear the rustling of the leaves, the crunch of it on the ground. At the very edge he could sense even the deer inside the forest, just as much his as his kin.

For a moment, Shikamaru was scared that she would not come.

Only for a moment. Soon enough, Shikamaru felt the shadows around him shift and move, converging in a single point. He kept his head down, barely breathing as he waited for the thin shadow to stretch out from the center of the forest and touch his. He swallowed. 

His body moved without his control, smooth and steady, until he was standing up. He let it. He didn’t fight the shadows’ control on him, his legs moving forward until he was walking to the heart of the forest. Behind him, his clan waited.

As he walked, the shadows of the forest became denser and darker, enveloping him and greeting him like a prodigal son that had finally come home. The deer watched him quietly, their eyes tracking his journey. Slowly, it came to the point that it was so dark, Shikamaru couldn’t even tell the difference between his eyes closed or open.

And then finally, his legs stopped moving without his permission.

He exhaled, the sound of it loud in the silence.

“Nara Shikamaru,” a voice hummed in amusement. Shikamaru almost jumped in surprise, every inch of his control locking down his body from moving.

“Sakura-sama,” Shikamaru greeted quietly. He tensed as he felt her move even closer towards him, the scent of her filling the space between them, floral and sweet and a hint of what made the Nara forest.

There was a sudden pressure on his mouth and Shikamaru’s lips parted in surprise, his eyes widening even if he could see nothing at all.

“Are you alright?” she murmured as she pulled away, her breath hot on his face.

“Yes,” Shikamaru whispered back. Anything louder would sound out of place in the quiet of the grove. He felt her hands come up to wrap around his neck and this time, when she pressed herself up close to him, her lips meeting his, Shikamaru was more prepared.

He kissed her back, a little disbelieving that he was kissing a goddess. His goddess. The Nara Clan’s patron. Sakura made an approving noise into his mouth. A green glow lit up the darkness and Shikamaru startled, blinking down at her in shock as tendrils spread from the diamond on her forehead, glowing lines going down her face and her arms.

Around them, the shadows swirled and danced, their only source her light. It was only now that Shikamaru finally understood what it meant when they said she was the light the Nara Clan’s shadows thrived from. Had his father seen this too? Had every Clan Head been blessed with this sight?

She smiled up at him and reached up to the yukata draped lovingly over her frame. She stripped, the cloth falling down her shoulders, revealing inch by inch her bare skin still aglow from the lines.

He swallowed, desire starting to burn in the pit of his stomach. She was beautiful. Her pink locks framed her features, her body soft yet strong, feminine but wiry and lean with strength. Her breasts were a beautiful curve on her chest, the glowing lines in between and around them, accentuating them to his gaze.

She reached out to him, her hands soft as they stripped him of his simple clothes. These were healer hands, yet the calluses spoke of a warrior. She was an anomaly, a goddess full of contradictions.

His yukata fell and pooled around his feet in the dirt. He spared a thought to hope that it wouldn’t be dirty. He’d have to wear it back to meet his clan after all.

“May the Nara prosper,” Sakura smiled at him.

“May the Nara prosper,” Shikamaru echoed.

**Author's Note:**

> i'm on [tumblr](senju-sandwich.tumblr.com)!


End file.
